more advanced students to supply vacant pulpits. After two years' experience of this quasi-ministerial appointment he resigned, as he had got, meanwhile, to entertain strong, unconquerable repugnance to the Calvinism of the Confession of Faith, and deemed it inconsistent with honour to remain in the Church on finding that he could not pledge himself to conformity with its creed. On leaving the Free Church Mr. Syme went to Kilmarnock to attend the theological classes recently instituted by the Evangelical Union, and then superintended by the Rev. James Morrison, foremost amongst Scotch divines in promoting the liberation of Scotch theology from the incubus of Calvinism. Eventually finding his way to England, Mr. Syme settled at Nottingham in 1848, and continued to reside there for the next fifteen or twenty years as pastor of one of the numerous Baptist churches of the town. The church prospered under his care, and the more readily as most of its adherents were disposed to advance along with the expanding movement of modern religious thought. He laboured with an energetic, and at the same time with a cosmopolitan spirit, for social and political progress both at home and abroad. He was a member of the Society of the Friends of Italy; he carried on correspondence with Kossuth in the interests of the struggling nationalities; and when the Refugees of 1848 fled for safety to England, he formed a society at Nottingham for the purpose of finding employment for them during their exile. In regard to social and political matters at home, he supported the cause of temperance, the early-closing movement, shorter hours of labour, co-operation, extension of the suffrage, and the extension both of primary and of University education, and whatever movement of a reformatory character he advocated on the platform he had the courage to support in the pulpit. As many of the working men in Nottingham were of the so-called secularist persuasion, and he was desirous of getting a hearing amongst them, he was ever ready to encounter their leaders in debate. In this way he more than once met Mr. G. J. Holyoake, and the result of these debates was such that in some autobiographic sketches recently contributed to an English weekly journal Mr. Holyoake refers to his quondam opponent as "a Congregational minister, with whom," he says, "I had debated with instruction to myself, and for whom I conceived regard." Health failing him, Mr. Syme sought change of scene and occupation in Australia. He arrived in Melbourne in 1862, and shortly afterwards joined the Age staff. Gaining Colonial and journalistic experience he undertook the editorship of the Leader, from which he retired in 1885.
Symon, Josiah Henry, Q.C., was admitted to practise before the Supreme Court of South Australia, and became Q.C. Having been returned to the Assembly for Sturt (1881-4), he was Attorney-General in the Morgan Ministry from March to June 1881. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Victoria at the general election in 1887.
Symonds, Edward C., J. P., was born in Sydney, N.S.W., on August 13th, 1838, and is the eldest son of E. S. Symonds, C.M.G., late Under-Treasurer of Victoria (q.v.). He went to Victoria in Jan. 1852, and entered the Government service in the Audit Office, in February of the same year, as chief clerk. In Sept. 1887 he was appointed Comptroller of the Money Order and Savings Bank branch of the Postal Department, which position he still holds. He was appointed to the commission of the peace in March 1888.
Symonds, Edward Stace, C.M.G., sometime Under-Treasurer of Victoria, son of Samuel Symonds, surgeon R.N., and Mary his wife, was born at Gosport, England, on July 15th, 1816. In 1836 he emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney in Dec. of that year. He was a commissioner for the goldfields from May 1852 to March 1855, when he was appointed gold-receiver at Melbourne. The latter position he held till Oct. 1857, when he became Under-Treasurer of Victoria, an office of which he fulfilled the duties for thirty years, retiring on a pension in Jan. 1887. Mr. Symonds, who was created C.M.G. in 1886, married on Feb. 16th, 1882, Miss Edith Rickards.
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